American Accent Training for Native Tagalog Speakers

Welcome to online practice.  If your native language is Tagalog, the table below lists pronunciation issues you are likely to face when speaking American English.  You will have your own individual variation, but the sounds listed here encompass the majority of patterns Tagalog speakers usually bring to speaking English.  You can use your individual assessment and training plan to determine the priority targets for you.  Subscribe to the full site for audio and video recordings to practice these and other sounds and patterns to improve your American English pronunciation.  (Don't have an assessment?  You can purchase one in the store or consider 1:1 accent training.)

sound

p

t


k

b


d


g


f


v



th (as in “think”)



th (as in “those”)



s-blends (sp, st, sk etc.)


z


sh


ch

j


ng

r


consonant clusters



/i/ "vowel ee" as in eat

/ɪ/ “vowel ɪ” as in “it”

/æ/ “vowel a” as in “at”

/a/ “vowel ah” as in “hot”

/ʊ/ “vowel U” as in wood

/ʌ, ə/ “vowel schwa” as in but

error pattern

can sound like b at the start of words

can sound like d at the start of words
can be left off the ends of words

can be left off the ends of words

can sound like “p” or “v” at the ends of words

can sound like “t” at the ends of words, or be left off the ends of words

can sound like “k” at the ends of words

can sound like p at the start or ends of words

can sound like b at the start of words, 
can sound like f or b at the ends of words

can sound like t at the start of words
can sound like t or s at the ends of words

can sound like d at the start of words
can sound like d or voiceless th at the ends of words

can have an extra "eh" sound before the s

can sound like s at the start or ends of words

can sound like s at the start or ends of words

can sound like ts at the ends of words

  can sound like ch or dz at the ends of words

sounds like n at the ends of words

can be rolled at the start of words and in blends

can have sounds left off or have the same errors listed above


can sound like vowel ɪ

can sound like vowel ee

can sound like vowel ah

can sound like vowel schwa or
vowel o

can sound like vowel oo


can be pronounced like the written letter rather than the American “uh” sound

Example

pig sounds like big

to sounds like do
light sounds like lie

like sounds like lie

robe sounds like rope or rove

code sounds like coat,
or we’d sounds like we

pig sounds like pick


fine sounds like pine
off sounds like op

very sounds like berry
leave sounds like leaf or leeb


thing sounds like ting
with sounds like wit or wiss


those sounds like dose
breathe sounds like breed or breeth

school sounds like esschool


zip sounds like sip
buzz sounds like bus

ship sounds like sip
wish sounds like wiss

each sounds like eats

ridge sounds like rich or rids


thing sounds like thin




lived sounds like live, 
want sounds like wan, 
words sounds like word 

sleep sounds like slip

it sounds like eat

cat sounds like cot

not sounds like nut or note


look sounds like Luke


banana sounds like “bah-nah-nah” rather than “buh-nah-nuh”